Wounds (i.e., lacerations or openings) in mammalian tissue can result in tissue disruption and coagulation of the microvasculature at the wound face. Repair of such tissue represents an orderly, controlled cellular response to injury. All soft tissue wounds, regardless of size, heal in a similar manner. The mechanisms of tissue growth and repair are biologic systems wherein cellular proliferation and angiogenesis occur in the presence of an oxygen gradient. The sequential morphological and structural changes, which occur during tissue repair have been characterized in great detail and have, in some instances, been quantified. See Hunt, T. K., et al., “Coagulation and macrophage stimulation of angiogenesis and wound healing,” in The surgical wound, pp. 1–18, ed. F. Dineen & G. Hildrick-Smith (Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia: 1981).
Tissue regeneration in various organs, such as, e.g., the skin or the heart depends on connective tissue restoring blood supply and enabling residual organ-specific cells such as keratinocytes or muscle cells to reestablish organ integrity. Thus, a relevant function of the mesenchymal cells, i.e., the fibroblasts or, in addition, the endothelial cells of vasculature, is secretion of factors enhancing the healing process, e.g., factors promoting formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) or factors promoting re-epithelialization by proliferating and migrating keratinocytes.
The cellular morphology of a wound consists of three distinct zones. The central avascular wound space is oxygen deficient, acidotic and hypercarbic, and has high lactate levels. Adjacent to the wound space is a gradient zone of local ischemia, which is populated by dividing fibroblasts. Behind the leading zone is an area of active collagen synthesis characterized by mature fibroblasts and numerous newly formed capillaries (i.e., neovascularization). While new blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) is necessary for the healing of wound tissue, angiogenic agents generally are unable to fulfill the long-felt need of providing the additional biosynthetic effects of tissue repair. Despite the need for more rapid healing of wounds (i.e., severe burns, surgical incisions, lacerations and other trauma), to date there has been only limited success in accelerating wound healing with pharmacological agents.
The primary goal in the treatment of wounds is to achieve wound closure. Open cutaneous wounds represent one major category of wounds. This category includes acute surgical and traumatic, e.g., chronic ulcers, burn wounds, as well as chronic wounds such as neuropathic ulcers, pressure sores, arterial and venous (stasis) or mixed arterio-venous ulcers, and diabetic ulcers. Open cutaneous wounds routinely heal by a process comprising six major components: i) inflammation, ii) fibroblast proliferation, iii) blood vessel proliferation, iv) connective tissue synthesis, v) epithelialization, and vi) wound contraction. Wound healing is impaired when these components, either individually or as a whole, do not function properly. Numerous factors can affect wound healing, including malnutrition, infection, pharmacological agents (e.g., cytotoxic drugs and corticosteroids), diabetes, and advanced age. See Hunt et al., in Current Surgical Diagnosis & Treatment (Way; Appleton & Lange), pp. 86–98 (1988).
Skin wounds that do not readily heal can cause the subject considerable physical, emotional, and social distress as well as great financial expense. See e.g., Richey et al., Annals of Plastic Surgery 23(2):159–65 (1989). Indeed, wounds that fail to heal properly finally may require more or less aggressive surgical treatment, e.g., autologous skin grafting. A number of treatment modalities have been developed as scientists' basic understanding of wounds and wound healing mechanisms has progressed.
The most commonly used conventional modality to assist in cutaneous wound healing involves the use of wound dressings. In the 1960s, a major breakthrough in wound care occurred when it was discovered that wound healing with a moist occlusive dressings was, generally speaking, more effective than the use of dry, non-occlusive dressings. See Winter, Nature 193:293–94 (1962). Today, numerous types of dressings are routinely used, including films (e.g., polyurethane films), hydrocolloids (hydrophilic colloidal particles bound to polyurethane foam), hydrogels (cross-linked polymers containing about at least 60% water), foams (hydrophilic or hydrophobic), calcium alginates (nonwoven composites of fibers from calcium alginate), and cellophane (cellulose with a plasticizer). See Kannon et al., Dermatol. Surg. 21:583–590 (1995); Davies, Burns 10:94 (1983). Unfortunately, certain types of wounds (e.g., diabetic ulcers, pressure sores) and the wounds of certain subjects (e.g., recipients of exogenous corticosteroids) do not heal in a timely manner (or at all) with the use of such dressings.
Several pharmaceutical modalities have also been utilized in an attempt to improve wound healing. For example, treatment regimens involving zinc sulfate have been utilized by some practitioners. However, the efficacy of these regimens has been primarily attributed to their reversal of the effects of sub-normal serum zinc levels (e.g., decreased host resistance and altered intracellular bactericidal activity). See Riley, Am. Fam. Physician 24:107 (1981). While other vitamin and mineral deficiencies have also been associated with decreased wound healing (e.g., deficiencies of vitamins A, C and D; and calcium, magnesium, copper, and iron), there is no strong evidence that increasing the serum levels of these substances above their normal levels actually enhances wound healing. Thus, except in very limited circumstances, the promotion of wound healing with these agents has met with little success.
What is needed is a safe, effective, and interactive means for enhancing the healing of extensive and/or hard-to-heal wounds that can be used without regard to the type of wound or the nature of the patient population.